Plastic pallets delivered in Virginia

Hampton Roads and the Port of Virginia

The Port of Virginia runs container terminals in Norfolk and Portsmouth, including Norfolk International Terminals and Virginia International Gateway, on one of the deepest harbors on the East Coast. Norfolk Southern and CSX both serve the docks, and double-stack trains carry boxes west through the mountains to the Ohio Valley and Chicago.

The port also runs the Virginia Inland Port at Front Royal, a rail-served container yard near the junction of I-66 and I-81. Shippers in the valley and in Northern Virginia hand off containers there and the railroad takes them to Norfolk.

Exporters filling containers in Virginia use plastic pallets partly to avoid the ISPM 15 process. APHIS lists plastic pallets as an alternative to wood packaging, outside its wood packaging rules, so there is no treatment stamp to apply or prove. A 40-foot container is about 7.7 feet wide inside; the footprint you pick decides how many pallets sit side by side.

• Plastic export pallets →
• ISPM 15 and plastic pallets →

Navy yards, shipbuilders and a ham town

Naval Station Norfolk is the largest naval base in the world, and Newport News Shipbuilding builds the Navy's aircraft carriers and, with a partner yard, its nuclear submarines. Defense supply shipments commonly use the 40x48 footprint, so contractors feeding the yards and the base often ask for that size in a rackable model with a published racked load.

Across the James River, the town of Smithfield is the headquarters of Smithfield Foods, and its pork plant there has made the town's name a label. Pork, seafood packers on the Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay, and peanut shellers in the Suffolk area all add food-plant demand to Hampton Roads.

• Rackable plastic pallets →

I-81, I-95 and I-64

I-81 runs down the Shenandoah Valley from Winchester past Harrisonburg, Staunton and Roanoke to Bristol, and trucks make up a large share of its traffic. Distribution buildings line it at Winchester, Front Royal, Harrisonburg and Roanoke because it bypasses the crowded coastal cities between Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

I-95 carries the East Coast corridor through Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, Richmond and Petersburg. I-64 links Hampton Roads with Richmond, Charlottesville and the valley, and I-77 crosses the southwest corner. I-85 begins at Petersburg and heads to North Carolina.

Turkeys and chickens in the valley

Rockingham County, around Harrisonburg, is one of the leading poultry counties in the eastern US, with turkey and chicken processing plants in the valley. Plants there wash floors and equipment daily and keep product in coolers and freezers.

Wood pallets don't last in that environment. A solid HDPE deck without hollows stands up to sanitizer and hot water, and it doesn't harbor the moisture that grows bacteria in a wood board. Food-contact paperwork for the exact model comes from its maker; the resin rule at 21 CFR 177.1520 covers polyethylene as a material.

• Plastic pallets for meat and poultry →

Pharma near Petersburg and the north's server halls

Petersburg and the Richmond area have drawn generic drug and pharmaceutical ingredient makers in recent years. GMP production areas prefer smooth, closed decks that can be wiped and inspected, which is where pharmaceutical pallets come in.

Loudoun and Prince William counties hold the largest cluster of data centers in the world. Server racks, switchgear and battery cabinets come in heavy and tall, and a plastic skid keeps splinters and wood dust off the clean, dust-controlled floors those halls run.

• Plastic pharmaceutical pallets →
• Heavy duty plastic pallets →

Truckload, LTL and selling back

Full orders ship on a 53-foot dry van, about 110 inches high inside, to the dock you name. LTL reaches Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia on frequent schedules and the valley and Southside towns on longer ones. Beltway congestion and base security in Norfolk can shape delivery times, so give us receiving hours and any gate requirements.

To sell surplus or cracked plastic pallets from a Virginia site, send the count, footprint, resin code, condition and pickup ZIP. We answer with an offer to buy them as pallets or as regrind.